EU governments call for calm on military action in Syria

Nuns pray in St Peter's Square as Pope Francis called for peace in Syria.

AFP: Filippo Monteforte

Many European governments have expressed reservations about using military force to punish Syria's president Bashar al-Assad over a chemical weapons attack near Damascus.

While the United States and France are considering military action against Syria, pressure is mounting in Europe for any military response to be delayed.

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Lithuania on Saturday blamed the chemical weapons attack that allegedly killed more than 1,400 people in August on Assad's government.

But they did not endorse military action and made it clear that the bloc wanted the United Nations to have a role in agreeing on an international response.

In a carefully worded message, the foreign ministers of 28 EU governments stopped short of endorsing possible military action ahead of the UN report which could be made public at the end of next week.

French president Francois Hollande suggested France might wish to take the matter to the UN Security Council following the release of the report, a step that could further delay any action.

"When the (US) Congress will have voted on Thursday or Friday and when we will have the inspectors' report, likely at the end of the week, a decision will have to be made, including after possibly referring the matter to the United Nations (Security Council)," Mr Hollande said.

An iFop poll published in Le Figaro on Saturday found that 64 per cent of the French opposed any kind of international military intervention in Syria, up 19 percentage points in just one week, with even more - 68 per cent - opposing a French intervention.

Pope calls for end to 'spiral of death'

On Saturday, a sombre-looking Pope Francis made an impassioned appeal before 100,000 people in St Peter's Square to avert a widening of Syria's conflict.

He urged world leaders to pull humanity out of a "spiral of sorrow and death".

Pope Francis, who two days ago branded a military solution in Syria "a futile pursuit", led the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in a global day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, the Middle East and the world.

"Violence and war lead only to death, they speak of death. Violence and war are the language of death," he said.

Participants were asked to meditate on the need for peace to vanquish the destruction of war.

"We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves. As if it were normal, we continue to sow destruction, pain, death," he said.

"At this point I ask myself: Is it possible to change direction? Can we get out of this spiral of sorrow and death? Can we learn once again to walk and live in the ways of peace?"